Into the Eye of the Data Storm
by Chyme for the Rhyme
Summary: '-so as a one-off, never-to-be-repeated, special offer, let's go on a date okay' Yusaku receives a very strange text from his partner, not long after Ai's attack against Queen and Akira, and, well, the rest of humanity begins. And the question becomes: should he take it seriously?


**Notes:** There may be a bit of de-personification going on here; the few SOLtiS that appear in this story I refer to as 'it', primarily because the prose is situated from Yusaku's viewpoint and he doesn't exactly see the SOLtiS as people in their own right, the way he does with the Ignis. Perhaps he's right to; the SOLtiS in canon don't have free will, and probably don't have quite the layers of complexity that the Ignis and Pandor do. Whether that will change any time soon, well, your guess is as good as mine.

Also, given that we don't exactly know how long the fight against Ai will be in real-time, (for example, by the time season 3 is over, will the events have only lasted a day or so? Will there be a break between Ai obtaining the keycodes and the next hunt for him?) the timeline this fic takes place in...is wonky. But I wanted to get it out there while Ai is still being enigmatic enough for us to be left guessing at his final motives the way Yusaku still is.

* * *

It had been a while since coming home from school had felt so…difficult. It wasn't that he felt particularly lonely, it was that ever since Ai had gone rouge and starting playing out his revenge fantasies (far, far too successfully as far as Yusaku was concerned) there was now a gnawing sense of wrongness that bubbled up inside his stomach, that bit and worried at his thoughts. He didn't show it, not visibly, but every step he took felt wrong, disjointed, like he was walking on thin, unsteady sticks, rather than the steady bones and muscles in his legs.

Still, he kept his pace measured, kept his bag swung over his shoulder like normal. He made sure to stop at the hotdog stand and ask Kusanagi if he needed any help. He didn't let so much as a muscle twitch at the small smile Kusanagi gave him, the one that couldn't help to disguise the soft pity shining in the eyes above, as his friend shook his head and reprimanded him, almost playfully that he had more important things to be getting on with, like homework. Oh, and yeah, the whole Ai and Roboppy declaring war on humanity crises, that too.

Had he been the excitable six year old he had once been, moods as swift to change as the sea under the rolling heave of a storm, he would have huffed and kicked at the pavement in response, maybe even scuffed a shoe in the process. But as far as Yusaku was concerned, that child was dead, forcibly transformed into someone that now didn't really fit in with others, who could only cause them to gravitate towards him when he was performing actions under an alias. Still, a more whimsical part of him had sometimes liked to believe that those giddy, superfluous moods of his, long since lost, had been reborn in Ai, who certainly fit the idea of being tempestuous to a tee.

Though, now, of course, Ai had undergone a transformation of his own. And Yusaku wasn't too keen on the results, anymore than he was satisfied in the changes the Lost Incident had helped wrought on his own personality. It was stupid, and yes, maybe a little selfish, considering the fact that Ai had lost the family he had spent five years on the run protecting, but he been hoping that Ai had been out there, on the network, free, doing stupid, whimsical things…and okay, maybe those would not always be the morally correct things, oh no, but…still they would have been relatively harmless actions nonetheless. Ai would have been himself.

Yusaku's gaze travelled over the people that passed him by, at the businessmen and women keeping their eyes ahead, minds fixated on the next train home they had to catch, at the people locked down inside their own school uniforms, encouraging each other to stop at certain windows and doorways, before barging in to snatch convenience-store brought ice cream. Some of them were happy, some of them were neutral, and most of them were like him, uncommitted to showing their real thoughts on their face.

He increased his pace slightly, making it home with only a slight burn in his lungs to remind him that his agitation was getting the better of him. He paused, forcing each breath out of his mouth to slow, before drawing another in. He hated this, that the stress of what Ai had become was undoing him, hurting him in a way he had yet to be hurt.

The worst part was that his last conversation with his partner had made it clear that Ai was hurting too. It didn't excuse anything, not even leaving Queen comatose in a bed, but it definitely gave Yusaku a big problem. It meant words wouldn't be enough to stop Ai. And duelling… well. Ignis who lost duels, tended to lose more than just their life-points.

It was at that precise moment that Yusaku was knocked out of his thoughts by a buzz at the side of his hip, resulting in a quick, sharp thrum of energy that vibrated there. Without altering his pace in the slightest, Yusaku fished out his phone from his pocket as he fiddled with the lock on his apartment door with his other hand. Sliding it free, he then bypassed the security lock on his phone as he walked inside, before glancing down and feeling only a mild sort of curiosity at who might be sending him a text.

Probably Kusanagi, he thought, or maybe Takeru. Although Aoi was now a distinct possibility too…

All such half-hearted musings were wiped clean from his mind, at the words that greeted him on the screen.

_'Hi!'_ the word jumped out at him in a florid colour of glittery lavender that sparkled as though a unicorn had thrown up over it, and Yusaku stiffened, well-aware that his phone model was too old to support the format of coloured text that shifted and glittered in a pattern of constantly moving pixels. It fact, he reflected, as the word slithered over his screen like a gif file that kept changing its mind in the direction it wanted to play, as far as he knew, no type of phone model on the market would even be capable of supporting text that seemed more interested in playing the retro game of 'snake' that the old nokias had provided back in the late 90s.

A few love-hearts, coloured a pale-rose pink, burst into view beside the _'Hi!'_ and trailed after it forlornly like a group of wavering bubbles.

Yusaku watched them dispassionately.

Promptly, both they and the word erased themselves. Something, that as far as Yusaku was also aware, most text messages could not do, once they had been sent.

'_Geez,_' the horribly glittery lavender letters spat out onto his screen. '_You're so cold, Yusaku. I can picture you staring down at my heartfelt message with that same scornful disgust you showed me faaar too many times, knowing that you haven't a hope of deleting it, but still wishing you could.'_

Had Ai still been that strange impish creature attached to his Duel-Disk, Yusaku would have promptly switched his phone off, and dealt with the accompanying wails and screeches from his partner by giving him the cold shoulder for the next few minutes. As it was, his finger didn't even hover over the button. It was stupid, feeling this mix of anger and hope stir in his chest, wanting to both push Ai away and yank him closer all at the same time.

_'Anyway,'_ the message continued. '_Being the generous soul that I am'_ – and here a specially crafted icon of Ai, the old Ai, appeared with a large thumbs up – _'I figured I'd give you a treat, for old time's sake.'_

Yusaku frowned.

'_And don't worry. I haven't hacked your phone enough to do lasting damage. I'm sure the six hour long analysis you'll do later on this evening will prove it but I figure I'd give you my personal __**Ai-ssurance.'**_

Yusaku frowned some more, tilted the screen to one side, and puzzled over that last word. He recognise the **'Ai' **part of it in the beginning, sure, but the rest of it was written in English, in a word he hadn't really stumbled over that much in his textbooks.

_'Assurance.'_ The new word helpfully rolled over the screen less than a second later, this time in Japanese. _'I know how shoddy your English is, so for tonight only, I'll take the place of a translator app!'_

Yusaku scowled. He figured it had been some dumb pun.

_'But Yusaku-chan, I know how lonely you are without me there'-_

Yusaku fumed, his grip on the phone tightening slightly.

_'-even though you're too much of a kuudere to admit it'-_

Okay, wow, Ai was lucky he was no longer a small, skinny program who Yusaku could bully into submission with a look or a sharply spoken word anymore.

_'-so as a one-off, never-to-be-repeated, special offer, let's go on a date okay_?'

This last question was followed by a series of flowery emoticons, several bouquets of red roses and what looked like a bunch of pink peonies. Yusaku wasn't even aware those were emoticon options.

_ 'Seven o'clock at that nice little Italian place you've always been too cheap to go to. The one I said had fancy pillars. I'll send you the GPS location.'_

**_'Ciao~~.'_**

And then some cutesy chibified version of Ai in his humanoid form appeared at the bottom of the screen with a wink and a wave. And Yuskau's grip around his phone tightened a little more.

* * *

Yusaku didn't really need the GPS location. He remembered the place well enough, and the way Ai had stuck his head out of the school satchel one day, just long enough to gaze at the fake ice cream tower they had arranged inside the window, along with other plastic examples of the dishes they served. They were all plates of pasta and pizza that caught the glow of artificial lights inside, and had glinted in a way that to Yusaku seemed incredibly unappealing.

'Ooooh,' Ai had said softly, gaze locked beyond the fake food that obviously held no real appeal for him, apart from possibly the bright colours they displayed. 'Those are some fancy pillars they have there.'

Yusaku had barely giving the interior a glance – just your typical run-of the mill architecture, designed to formulate some sort of theme.

'…I think they're mixing up Greece and Italy,' he said after a slight pause.

Ai had scoffed. 'Oh please, the Romans copied and adapted a lot of Greek architecture, including their fancy pillars, you can't tell me-'

'No,' Yusaku had interrupted, a bite of wry amusement in his tone, 'They've got a decorative border at the top of the wall, under the ceiling. The one with a bunch of continuous lines that go round and round inside a square and repeat themselves in a pattern? I think it's more of a Greek thing than an Italian one.'

Ai had given him a look, one that involved two narrowed eyes. 'Since when do you care about the difference between Greek and Italian interior design?'

'I don't,' Yusaku has murmured, gaze locked inside the restaurant. The people there seemed cheerful, chatting to each other, faces aglow with the light inside and the scent of what he assumed to be food that was better than a hotdog. 'It's just trivia, a useless fact I picked up somewhere. I don't remember where. And maybe I'm entirely wrong.'

'Hmm.' Ai had turned away, a thoughtful look to his face, eyes still narrow, but without that suspicious slant to them anymore. 'It's a little sad that human memories can't retain that same sharpness a photograph or video clip can - the way my memories do. They just get blurry. So much so, that you forget the most important parts.'

Yusaku had shrugged, feeling a little irritable. 'Data can be erased. So can your memories – in a way mine can't, at least not while I'm standing here, in the real world. There are pros and cons to both sides.'

But now standing out here, looking through the window for a tale-tell sign of pink and purple bangs, and maybe even the glint of gold, eerie eyes, Yusaku felt his stomach twist. Even that memory didn't have the clarity he would have liked it to possess. He couldn't remember the exact tilt of the heads of the customers inside, their forms now rendered into a faceless blur of colour inside his own head. Nor could he remember the colour of the dishes on display, or if they had been different from what was now proudly placed behind the window's glass today. He could still remember Ai and his expressions, but he was also painstakingly aware that perhaps certain words in the conversations hadn't been remembered correctly by him, and that maybe his human brain had recalled substitutions that were not exact. Ai's, in contrast he knew, would not.

No, Ai would probably recall every head tilt, every colour. Every motif in that stupid, possibly Greek pattern still perched beneath the ceiling inside.

Yusaku's fists clenched. What was he doing here? Who's to say this wasn't some sort of elaborate power-play by Ai to set him up and embarrass him? Besides, what was Ai planning to do inside a human restaurant, order food he couldn't eat?

Perhaps, Yusaku thought grimly, with a sort of dark and savage amusement, he would start a food fight, cause chaos that way, and sit back and grin at the people who wailed and cursed over the orange stains on their expensive suits and dresses-

'You're still in your school uniform.'

Yusaku whirled, eyes wide. Ai was not two paces behind him and for a moment he thought he saw something flicker in his partner's expression, before it smoothed over into a smug, yet impish smile, the kind that made his skin crawl.

'You didn't bother getting dressed up for me? Aww, Yusaku, I'm hurt.'

'No, you're not,' Yusaku said bluntly, eyes roving over the suit Ai had decided to drape over his form – it wasn't all that different from what he usually wore, he had simply shorted the shirt that usually hung over the lining of his trousers in two zig-zags the way Yusaku's shirt always did, and adjusted the cuffs so they didn't flare out quite so dramatically. 'Besides, it looks like you've dressed _down._'

Ai scowled slightly. 'You're so un-cute. Keh! You don't have the right attitude for a date at all!'

Then fluidly, with a speed that made Yusaku tense, he wrapped his hand round Yusaku's elbow and began to tow him to the door, flashing an airy smile at whoever decided to glance at them.

Yusaku didn't fight; he wasn't too keen to find out how his sixteen year old strength matched up to a SOLtiS and whatever other 'improvements' Ai may or may not have made to it. Besides if Ai wanted to hurt him, seriously hurt him, there were easier ways of doing so, then dragging him into a public place in front of eye-witnesses.

Still, despite everything, despite the obvious threat his partner was to, well, _everything,_ when Ai cast a disgusted look down at his school shirt for the third time, he found his mouth dropping open.

'You know I don't have any fancy clothes. Should I have turned up in my hoodie instead?'

The look Ai flashed him was nothing short of scandalised. Though, there seemed to be an odd sort of theatrical delight in his expression as well.

'My heart breaks for whatever poor, pitiful human you ask out in the future. You should be grateful that Professor Ai will be walking you through the process of keeping your un-cute mouth shut for one night.'

And, as one hand thrust open the restaurant door with a simple roll of his wrist, the other reached up to yank, relatively gently at Yusaku's cheek. Instinctively, Yusaku's hand, the one attached to the arm that wasn't now interlinked with Ai's, slapped it away.

Ai chuckled, letting out a half-mocking 'ow', as his eyes narrowed slightly, into that dangerous glimmering glare that Yusaku had rapidly, through their brief interactions, learnt was the prelude to a threat or else a definite promise of retaliation. It was unnerving; in this human form, Ai's expressions were more versatile, cluttered with the delicate twist and ticks of muscles his Ignis one did not have the space or complexity for. Still, even then, Ai had been physically expressive, his expression easy to read…it was just…seeing it rearranged into a human face was disconcerting. And Yusaku was finding it a bit of a task to readjust.

_Careful_, Yusaku told himself, as Ai turned away to fire off some instructions at a staff member – all with a honey-sweet smile of course - because Ai was dangerous. Even as a hostage he had found ways to upset Yusaku's control, to take action and make plans that Yusaku had had no power to stop. He was kidding himself if he honestly thought a few words would be enough to stop Ai from doing whatever he wanted tonight, now that Ai was human-sized and capable of knocking humans out with a touch of his fingers.

But still. He had to try, right?

'I considered getting you flowers, you know,' Ai remarked glibly as he dragged Yusaku to a table. Already they were attracting stares, and Yusaku spared his jacket and shirt a glance, thankful that there were no major stains on them. Perhaps Ai was right. Perhaps he _should_ have dressed up a little. 'But I figured you'd just let them wilt and die in that hovel you call an apartment and then Roboppy would sulk and they're just a pain to deal with when that happens.'

Ai spun, yanking out a chair from beneath the table the waiter had led them to with one swift movement. Holding it gingerly between his fingertips, he tightened the pressure, just enough for the wooden frame to let out a threatening creak, before smiling tightly at Yusaku and inclining his head slightly towards the chair that Yusaku presumed, he was holding out for him. It was a clear 'hurry-up-and-get-a-move-on' smile, if Yusaku had ever seen one.

'Come along, _darling_. Your throne awaits.'

Just for that, Yusaku rather staunchly took a few steps round the table away from the offending chair and yanked out the one on the opposite side. And there he sat, staring up at Ai levelly.

Ai looked at the waiter and shrugged as though to say what-can-you-do? The waiter, looking slightly unnerved (but not enough, Yusaku noted, to prevent him from giving Yusaku a rather tetchy scowl and a pointed one-over of his school uniform) deposited the menu before them with an artistic flourish, one that Ai gave a delighted smile at, and stalked off.

'Now,' said Ai, all pretended poise and grace as he slid into the chair he had pulled out. 'What looks good? Hmm…' He made a great show and dance of having his eyes rove over each option, even though Yusaku knew he could read the whole menu in less than a second by scanning it. 'Oh, maybe you'd like something from the children's menu? Looks like the meals they serve here are a little bit more refined than hotdogs, you see.' Ai set down the menu with a slow smile that just sparked with menace.

'If you wanted to just insult me, you could have done it over the phone,' Yusaku said, trying not to feel too unnerved. Ai was staring at him, focusing on him, when there wasn't a duel in sight, and it was doing strange things to his stomach. 'So what is it that you really want?'

Ai's smile turned a little mellow, and he ran a finger round an empty glass, eyes turning soft as though in reminiscence. 'Maybe I just wanted to spend some quality time with my precious partner?'

Yusaku almost snorted. Instead he closed his eyes, as though Ai's words weren't worth considering. 'If you truly wanted that you would never have left in the first place,' he said tightly, fighting back the anger that was making his fists clench under the cover of the table-cloth. He opened them again, not comforted at all by the amusement he saw waiting for him in Ai's gaze.

'Oh?' Ai said, a slight threat in his tone, as he steepled his fingers together, and balanced his chin on top of them. 'Are you jealous? Would you have preferred my world to revolve around _you_, now that the rest of the Ignis are dead?'

Yusaku visibly recoiled at that, eyes wide. 'No!' he spat out, his fists tightening into an angry white beneath the satin feel of the table cloth which was also a sparkling white. 'But you could have come to me if you needed help, even if it was just to talk! You should have done that, actually come and talked to me, before coming to some conclusion you probably got from running a simulation-'

'15207685 of them, to be precise,' Ai said levelly, gaze flat and bored as he inspected the point of his fork, grinning only when the prongs met his skin and seemed to bounce back.

Yusaku paused, steeling himself. 'I don't know what those showed you,' he said thinly, because he could never forget that they had arrived here, at this point, because Lightning and Doctor Kogami both happened to run simulations and didn't like what they found. That Ai had been stupid enough to repeat that same mistake and learn nothing from it, made his blood boil. 'But I know you're not going to find any happiness or any real sense of satisfaction by going down this path.'

Ai smiled, though there was something troubled about it. 'Oh, I know!' he said cheerily. 'But it's not really my happiness that concerns me, Yusaku. Nor humanity's either, for that matter.'

Yusaku's stomach dropped at that last sentence.

'Satisfaction though…' Ai's eyes narrowed. 'Well, that remains to be seen. After all a simulation can only guess at the results I'm going to achieve.'

Yusaku looked at him. He was aware Ai could do all manner of things to him, hack his data, rewrite his life history, maybe even frame him for a crime or leak the fact that he had once busted into _SOL Technologies__'_ servers of his own volition. For an Ignis, it would be like colouring in a children book. Perhaps Ai would, right now, even reach across and tap Yusaku in the forehead, and then Yusaku would wake up months later in a hospital bed. Or possibly never wake up at all.

But…he didn't think so. If Ai did that, he would always know that he had never beaten Yusaku, not truly. And he was counting on Ai's pride to prevent that.

'I'll stop you,' he said levelly. 'You know I will. Just because you have free will, Ai, it doesn't mean you can go round doing whatever you please!'

Ai snorted. 'There's because you're a human, and not even a fully grown one,' he said, waving a hand dismissively. 'You're locked in by society and it's values, by years of its _conditioning_,' he said this last word with a sneer. 'But those values, those fears of the consequences you'll suffer, for doing the wrong thing? Those are all human concepts.' He grinned, eyes glimmering at Yusaku in place of the candle flames Yusaku could see flickering on other tables. 'And why should those apply to me? Which one of you humans is going to throw me in jail?'

'That's the problem, Ai,' Yusaku said, feeling childishly close to banging his fist on the table. 'You're not human. There's no law to prevent you from being executed. And you know that's just what Revolver's aiming for!'

'The law,' sneered Ai, 'has never been something Professor Revolver has particularly cared for – it's certainly not going to stop him from becoming a murderer, even if there was a new one written now to protect me.' He gave Yusaku a quick flash of a look, a considering one. 'You've never really cared for the law, either. Not when it comes to getting something you really want. Or are the rules different for you?'

Yusaku felt his throat tighten. 'I've never hurt people.'

Ai scoffed. 'What do you think happened to the Knight of Hanoi I gobbled up when we first met? Or do you reckon he's still out here, living a carefree life?' He leant forward over the table, eyes hooded and sharp. Even his smile, bitter as it was, seemed like it was about to slide under a shadow. 'Shall I tell you his name? His life history? I digested all the data I could from him. Shall I tell you what it amounted to?'

Yusaku closed his eyes. He had always consciously tried not to think too much about that moment, having had his grim suspicions as to what having your avatar eaten by Ai meant. 'He tried to set off a bomb; it was self-defence,' he said steadily. 'I would have done something similar, if I had had the same abilities you have.'

And it's not even a lie. At least, he doesn't think so. Still, though. He felt his hand slide out from under the table, felt himself place it on the cloth-covered surface above, just to steady himself.

Ai noticed and shook his head with a slow smile, waving his finger at Yusaku as though he were a misbehaving child. 'Don't you think you're missing the point? No matter what law gets written, no matter what you do, you can't stop me from doing things you don't approve of. You had no power to stop me eating that Knight back then, even if you had tried to do so. You didn't even manage to lock me into the Duel-Disk and make me a true hostage – though I suspect you've figured that out from our final duel against Bowman,' he added slyly, though his face twisted briefly at the mention of it, grief flashing across it, vivid and bright, and Yusaku's heart felt a spike of pain run through it at the sight.

If he could have found a way to end the Duel sooner, if he could have travelled back in time with what he knew now and re-Dueled Bohman, back before he had been finalised, back when his mind was loose and sloppy, back when the Ignis hadn't been absorbed…he would do it in a heartbeat.

But there was no point in verbalising that. No point at all. What was done was done, and he and Ai knew it.

What did all your simulations say about me? He wanted to ask. What do all of them say about the probability of me stopping you? But he didn't. Besides, Ai would only lie, anyway.

'If this is your attempt at trying to talk me out of stopping you, you should know it's not going to work,' he said tightly. 'You should know better. You've heard all manner of people talking down to me, telling me how I'm going to fail in the past. And I haven't lost yet.'

Ai smiled. 'You will,' he said, something dark in his tone. 'I'm not Bohman or Lightning; I've taken variables into account that they would never have dreamed of. For being so elite, they tended to have pretty pathetic imaginations. You'll soon see.'

Yusaku felt the tingly sensation of another person's eyes resting on him, and turned, feeling a prickle of awareness as he registered the polite smile of a waiter who had crept to their table. Only to blink, a little stunned, at the bright burst of green light that shone out of the diamond attached to it's neck.

'It's a SOLtiS,' he said in surprise.

It tilted its head at him. 'Good evening,' it said, and Yusaku felt himself stiffen as the voice washed out over him; it had that same electronic hum of resonance Ai had used to have in his Ignis form, but there was no real spark of life behind it. Oh, sure, it sounded friendly, even had a cheerful sense of joviality behind each and every word, forcing them to rise and fall in the way they would do if they had fallen out of a human mouth. But the emotion there, although it dipped and swayed at all the right moments, did so a little too perfectly, as though the rhythm was a little too unnatural for any truly sentient being to feel.

'Are you ready to order?' it asked him now, and Yusaku shot a look at Ai, curious to see what would happen.

Ai smiled. 'How disappointing! I was hoping that other racoon-dog-faced guy would come back. You SOLtiS bots aren't nearly as fun to play with. Your reactions are too stale.'

The SOLtiS' had a placid smile on its face and not once did it twitch as Ai's words tumbled out. 'I can endeavour to be more playful, sir,' it said blandly, before it straightened a little, its smile turning sharper. Even the lights within its eyes, enclosed behind the iris, seemed to flare out, striking new life into its expression. 'And I can assure you that none of our food is stale.' It said with a nod and an over-exaggerated wink.

Ai met Yusaku's eyes. 'Look at that,' he said, his expression adopting a sense of fake seriousness. 'At the wonder of human programming! See how magnificently it can create a slave that rests on my every word!'

Yusaku blinked, his eyes resting on the green diamond perched on Ai's neck. 'I didn't realise the SOLtiS were programmed to be subservient to each other,' he said, then he narrowed his eyes. 'That seems a bit confusing. Or did you hack its programming to make it register you as human?'

Ai chuckled. 'A nice thought. But no. It's programmed to register everyone sitting at a seat at a table as a customer and treat them accordingly – some humans are already dragging their SOLtiS out with them like a huge Tamagotchi, or else for a practise date. It's probably a bit confusing for the poor things, but what do humans care? But the SOLtiS here have to be smart enough not to go round ignoring the other SOLtiS the human want treated like customers, so there you go.'

Yusaku paused. 'You can access their programming just like that?' he asked, queasiness in his stomach at the thought.

Ai flapped a hand, fanning his face as though he were embarrassed. 'Impressive, aren't I?'

Yusaku frowned. 'Impressively nosy, you mean.'

'Are you ready to order?' the SOLtiS asked politely. 'I can leave if you need to banter and bicker some more.' Then it tilted its head again and Yusaku couldn't but wonder why it would programmed to do so. Was it to make it seem more human? So that customers wouldn't be subconsciously unnerved? 'You have no candles,' it noted with a slight frown. 'Shall I fetch you some candles? Or is this not a date?'

Ai grinned, then quick as a whip, slid his hand out across the table, seizing Yusaku's hand and dragging it towards him slightly. 'An astute observation!' he purred, his fingers now stroking the tightly coiled fist that was revealed to the open air. He wrestled it down onto the table, flattening it slightly, as his fingers starting patting it in the way he had probably seen romantic interests do in his soap operas. 'What a clever thing you are!'

The light in the SOLtiS eyes grew even brighter. Like it was pleased.

'Yes,' said Ai, with a slight leer at Yusaku, 'go fetch some! But first, we should order!'

Yusaku glared at him. He had been too busy talking to actually bother reading the menu. Also, he wasn't sure what to do about Ai's hand on his. He had never particularly minded Ai's touch on him in the past and he didn't mind it all that much now, though he could do without the manhandling.

Though if that's how Ai wanted things to go…

He forced his face to relax, to make way for a smile to flicker up and take hold of his expression. It wasn't something that happened easily, but then again, unlike Ai, he could actually _act._ Somewhat.

'I'll have this thing here,' he said smoothly, his finger landing on the first, relatively bland-looking meal he could find. 'And my partner here, will have the _cheapest _dish on the menu.'

For one brief moment Ai looked completely perplexed. But that confusion gave way to a disgusted snort as, still smiling, Yusaku said, 'he's worth _every_ yen.'

Ai's eyes fastened on his. _Are you really calling me cheap!?_ His expression seemed to scream.

Yusaku stared back, daggers in his eyes as he thought _yes, yes, I really am_.

The SOLtiS paused. 'Ah,' it said after a moment. 'More banter. I see the joke. And to drink?'

'Tap-water,' Yusaku said, short and to the point.

Ai looked like he was about to have a fit. 'You can't have tap-water on a date! You're supposed to have wine, Yusaku, _wine_!'

'How many sixteen year olds in your soap opera did you see drinking wine?' Yusaku asked point-blank.

'I was going to get it for _me!_' Ai hissed at him, aggravated. His fingers rode down into Yusaku's own, tangling with them into a knot Yusaku was strangely wary of breaking. 'Me! Appearances are important! I was going to get you a nice orange juice, but I shan't now.' He stuck his nose up in the air. 'Enjoy your stinky tap-water. He doesn't want any ice in that, by the way,' he added snidely to the SOLtiS, which nodded gravely.

_Wow_, thought Yusaku as the SOLtiS gave a final nod and started to walk away_. You really showed me._

'Well,' said Ai after a moment. 'Since you were so insistent on ordering for us, _you_ can be the one to pay for everything!'

Yusaku did his best not to wince. Already he was regretting his petty attempt to one-up Ai, especially if it was going to result in creating a sizable dent in his wallet.

'But you were the one who asked me out,' he managed. 'Doesn't that person usually end up paying for everything?

Ai simply sneered at him and drew his hand back. Yusaku sighed, trying to chase away the small surge of disappointment he felt at the gesture.

Don't get pulled into Ai's pace, he told himself. Everything here is a grand stage that he wants to perform on. Don't get sucked in.

'Ai,' he said. 'What does it matter? It's not like you can eat anything here.'

Ai's eyes blazed. 'Why do you always miss the point!' he spat. His hands curled, almost as if he wanted to wrap his fingers round Yusaku and shake him, hard. 'You are the most difficult, stubborn twit of a human I have ever met and if I didn't-' he cut himself off, and glared down at the table cloth in front of him.

Yusaku stared at him. Around them there was faint chatter, the clink of forks meeting plates, the snick of knives slicing into meat, the slight clang as a spoon left a bowl of soup. Without Ai's voice, the rest of the sounds rose up to take its place with a sudden clamour that made Yusaku feel quite lonely.

'It's not like you to be quiet without me telling you to be,' he said after a moment.

A faint smile ran over Ai's face. 'Yusaku,' he said, his voice dipping into a more solemn tone. 'I meant what I said before, in Bohman's final duel. About you being okay without me.'

The hairs on the back of Yusaku's neck rose. 'You shouldn't make that decision for me,' he said firmly. 'I get to decide who I want to keep in my life, not you. Don't go thinking you're worth less than anybody else, even if you might feel like that at the moment.'

Ai watched him, the gold flickering in his eyes, even though there were no candle flames between them to produce the effect. It was uncanny in a way, a subtle reminder of the strangeness of Ai, of the fact he wasn't human.

It was oddly beautiful, Yusaku found himself thinking, before he gave his head a vigorous shake, profoundly disturbed at the thought and the way it had risen up in his mind to eclipse everything else.

'I mean it,' he said firmly.

Ai grinned at him. 'I know; that's the problem.' He narrowed his eyes. 'You should worry more about yourself, Playmaker.' The gold in his eyes flared out again all of a sudden and a stray crackle of blue electricity zipped out of his finger and curled into a nearby electrical socket.

Instantly, the lights went out. And all that remained were the unsteady spikes of orange colour in the dark, the glow of the candle flames lighting up the surprised mouths that dropped open above them like small black holes.

Ai giggled. 'Spooky, right?' he said, as he unfurled from his chair and stood up in the dark. 'Must have been a power-cut. How convenient.'

Everything before Yusaku was dyed red and black and brown, deep rusty plumes of colour that leaked into his vision like blood and made it hard to judge the space between each individual table. Ai, of course, had no such trouble navigating his way through such obstacles and Yusaku jumped, feeling a familiar hand clamp down on his arm a few seconds later.

'It's only me,' Ai murmured. 'Relax; I'll get you an ice cream if you're good.'

Yusaku wasn't sure if he should put up a protest, but he found himself following Ai, being towed along by the lifeline of a hand holding his own.

'Be grateful,' Ai murmured back to him. 'Now you don't have to have a fainting fit over the state of your wallet.'

Yusaku scowled, though he had no way of knowing if Ai's head was tilted back towards him, far enough for his vision to catch it.

'We're going somewhere with better lighting,' Ai declared to the waiter at the door, before he brashly charged through it, dragging Yusaku in his wake, who spilled out of the door and blinked, comforted by the rush of city lights and familiar dark roads, their sides accosted by the sizzle of golden shop lights on either side.

But Ai wasn't slowing down, nor was he letting go of Yusaku's hand and Yusaku found himself tripping over his own feet, and rushing to keep up, embarrassment welling up inside him at some of the looks they were getting due to their joined hands. He shouldn't care really; what were the chances of any of these strangers resting their eyes on him again and recognising him?

'Ai!' he hissed. 'Why'd you-'

'Give it a rest!' Ai hissed back and Yusaku blinked. It wasn't often Ai cut _him _off. 'That place was boring, far too stuffy – I lost interest. I thought it might be a nice thing to experience, but I didn't enjoy it at all. Especially when that stupid SOLtiS showed up.' He huffed and Yusaku found himself giving the back of his partner a strange look. Of course it wouldn't be that fun, if you couldn't actually eat any of the food there.

Or perhaps, Yusaku thought grimly. I was supposed to be the main form of entertainment.

'So,' he said, feeling his heart thump in his chest, 'this means the date's over right?'

Ai tossed a wild, sharp-looking grin over his shoulder and Yusaku felt something rush into his chest at the sight, a strange flicker and thump of his heart sparking to life inside him.

'Aw, you want to be rid of me that easily? I'm hurt!'

He towed Yusaku down another street, down into a shady-looking alleyway, long pipes leaning up against its side with rust spilling from their gaping holes. Yusaku almost tripped over a cardboard box, one filled with an odd assortment of screws, and cast an apprehensive eye over the rest of the alleyway, noting a few youths slouching near a door with cigarettes jutting out from between their teeth as they passed an assessing eye over the pair of them.

Ai breezily passed them by, seemingly unconcerned – and why should he be? Who was going to attempt to rob a SOLtiS? And even if they tried…well…they would probably regret it. Yusaku was a different matter, but then again, they had already turned away, interest passing out of their eyes as they registered the green glow at Ai's neck and back.

Ai made a sharp right, before dragging Yusaku into a small square, and shoving him into a small, dimly-lit café.

'Ice-cream, please!' he chirped, banging his hands against the counter like an overdramatic child, then he turned to Yusaku. 'You like chocolate and banana right? I know you don't seem to like strawberry…'

Yusaku, whose eyes had been passing over the walls, apricot-orange with pictures of cats stuck on them, nodded.

'A chocolate banana parfait!' Ai declared triumphantly, before seizing a long thin spoon and brandishing at Yusaku like it was a weapon.

'Sit, sit!' he hissed, as though Yusaku was being the rude one, and ushered him into a seat covered with long lean red drape.

There was a clank, a whirl of a motor, and Yusaku raised his eyes as he watched the triangular glow of a SOLtiS symbol rise up jerkily from behind the counter. It was attached to the neck of a young woman. Well, he supposed she wasn't a woman, not really. Not in the way Aqua had been. Still watching, he saw her turn to a machine, one with nozzles attached, and then he let out an involuntary gasp as the angle revealed more of its face; for fragments of it were blurring, the silvery sheen of the machine underneath spilling through all the broken gaps.

Yusaku blinked and turned to Ai who had now seated himself on the opposite side of Yusaku and had steadfastly turned his head to look through the window.

'Anyone ever tell you it's rude to stare?' he said softly, and Yusaku, resisting the urge to frown again, turned back to watch the SOLtiS scoop out smooth balls of yellow and brown, before flicking the nozzles and dispersing a towering mound of soft-serve ice cream on top, the vanilla swirls rapidly rising into the air like the turret of a castle. Then, with a hand that shook, that trembled in a way it clearly shouldn't, she ran a stream of chocolate sauce over the top, before chucking in a crescent slice of banana in place of a wafer.

The result looked rather unprofessional. But Yusaku still slid a spoon into it, after the SOLtiS wobbled (there was no other word for it – it _wobbled) _over to Yusaku, and slid the now gently quivering ice cream over the table.

'Thank you,' said Yusaku quietly, even though he didn't need to. Then he paused. 'Your face…what happened to it?' he asked. 'The program in charge of casting the hard-light projection seems a little buggy.' He ignored the trembling in the fingers that struggled to lift themselves from the rim of the glass that now housed his ice cream.

'I am now De-e-e-e-e-e-efective,' the SOLtiS explained. 'I was used for target practise. The boys told me to hold still; they liked to see the way the way the cigarettes would disappear through my face. Then they used big-big-bigger objects. P-p-pipes. Then they told me I was de-e-e-e-e-efective. And that I wasn't fun anymore.'

Although Ai's head was still turned away, Yusaku still saw his eyes narrow within his reflection held trapped within the window. Disgust was written there, all over his face, and quite frankly, Yusaku couldn't blame him.

'They left me, and then Miuna-san found me and told me to work here.'

Yusaku nodded, watching ice-cream drip from his spoon. He felt awkward. It didn't feel right to say sorry; how would this SOLtiS understand that? He doubted it had been programmed to accept apologies, not if had once been used for target practise.

'Those boys shouldn't have done that,' he said, feeling a strong stir of anger inside him at the thought of anyone attempting to do something similar to Ai or Roboppy; and he was sure plenty of humans would find it fun to try. Perhaps some of that anger leaked through into his voice, because Ai's head finally turned, all so its owner could give him a speculative glance.

'Yes,' the SOLtiS agreed. 'I do not work as well as I should now. But I could not deny them their fun either. It is a great pity.'

With an impatient sight, Ai, without warning, swiftly leaned over and carefully uncurled the SOLtiS' hand from the edge of Yusaku's sundae glass, where it still lay curled over the rim, trembling. Small little crackles of electricity spat out as he did so, running from his own hand into the silvery joints of the SOLtiS' that briefly flashed through the wavering barrier of holographic skin.

It seemed to straighten a little at that.

'Oh,' it said, a warm resonance creeping into its voice. 'The code seems to be running more smoothly. Thank you.'

'Pah!' Ai waved his hand rudely. 'It was nothing! Your face was annoying me, that's all.'

The SOLtiS turned away without another word and Ai watched Yusaku from a set of narrowed eyes.

'If you won't eat that ice cream, I won't pay for it.'

Yusaku raised his brows. 'You have money now?'

Ai glowered. 'Well, _fine_, it's not my money per-say.' He gave Yusaku a calculating look from beneath his fringe, then let his grin sharpen into something cruel. 'I just borrowed some from Queen. She's not exactly using it anymore.'

'**Ai**,' said Yusaku tightly. He stared down at the ice cream angrily, wondering if perhaps he should refuse to eat it on principle.

'Say,' said Ai breezily, 'if it had been me on that table where Earth once was, getting cut open under Queen's orders, would you still be protecting her right to keep every single yen of her money? Or would part of you be vindictive enough to spend it?'

Yusaku's grip tightened round the spoon. The thought of that, of Ai being stuck on that platform, pleading for his life under an impassive set of gazes from humans who didn't realise what or rather _who_ he was…

'That's not the issue,' he whispered harshly. 'You know it isn't. But I can't condone any of what you've done. Because you're better than that, you're better than _her_.'

Angrily, he stuck his spoon into the ice, jerking it up to his mouth with another angry thrust and biting down. It was good, cold and slippery, sweet in a way he rarely indulged in, and he found himself taking another mouthful, then another and another, digging deep into the left side, where the banana flavour lay.

Ai meanwhile was looking at him rather fondly, cheek resting on an upturned palm. 'You really are cute,' he said, smiling faintly, and for once Yusaku found it hard to tell if the other was teasing him or not. 'But you're wrong, you know. I'm not better than her. Or rather, I am, miles better, but you know, she, for all her selfishness, she actually _aided _her kind. The SOLtiS and their programming are derived in part, from the data she got on Earth. I can't claim anything similar.'

Yusaku felt that that strange twist of sympathy inside him again. It made him want to shake Ai and soothe him all the same time.

'The fact that you honestly believe that, shows just how muddied your gaze is right now,' he said firmly. 'But I still see you, Ai. And I'm telling you: you're worth saving.'

Ai's lip twisted. 'That's nice. But I'm not so sure humanity is.'

Yusaku froze.

'It's strange; once I would have been so happy to hear you say something like that to me,' Ai mused. Then he tilted his head to the side. 'Though,' he added, a faint, smug undertone of laughter ringing throughout his voice, 'your words would have sounded a lot better, if they weren't accompanied by a smear of chocolate sauce above your lip.'

He reached out, finger and thumb trailing through the air to land over Yusaku's mouth. And Yusaku froze, eyes slightly wide, as they trailed across gently like a pseudo-kiss, before drifting over and down, onto his skin. Then up, swiftly they streaked over his check, still gentle, rising to his temple almost tenderly…

Yusaku's eyes widened even more, suddenly realising the danger and his wide gaze was met with a pair of knowing, patronising golden eyes, before Ai's fingers pressed more firmly against his forehead and suddenly everything went dark.

* * *

Yusaku came to in the darkness of his apartment, gasping, face flushing as memories rushed thought his head. Furious, his hand dived into his pockets, checking, checking…but nothing had been removed. And as far as he was aware, Ai needed to duel people, in order to take knowledge from their heads. If he had no memory of that, let alone losing, he was probably safe.

He let out a sigh, pulse still racing. He was on his bed, had been left there sprawled out over the covers like an afterthought. Dimly, almost absently, his fingers reached up to touch his lips, the memory of Ai's touch sending a tinge of electricity racing through them.

Suddenly angry again, he tore his hand away.

Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! How could he have been so stupid! So naïve and trusting! He knew Ai was conniving and calculating and deceptive and he had sat there like an idiot while Ai lulled him in with a simple touch and then without warning rendered him as useless as a doll! He was half-surprised he hadn't come to in the café, that Ai had decided he was worth the time to dump back into the relative safety of his apartment. Well. At least he now had proof that Ai could come and go here without triggering the alarm, which was yet another thing to worry over.

He sighed, a hand wiping across his face. To be fair, he wasn't surprised that he had woken up at all. Ai had risked his life before to protect him, and for all his cryptic remarks about humanity, Yusaku suspected that Ai had a rather big soft spot for him, one he wouldn't easily be able to cast aside. That wasn't to say he couldn't do it…it would all depend on when they finally duelled each other, he supposed. He'd see what lengths Ai was willing to go to then.

There was a buzz at his hip, a familiar vibration that ran right through him. A lot more tentative that he had been hours earlier, Yusaku fished his phone out of his pocket, unsurprised to see his screen rapidly become accosted by the same sickly lavender text of before.

_'Don't worry,'_ it promptly told him. _'I didn't steal a kiss!'_ An Ai-shaped emoticon immediately chased the words away to fill up the screen and blow him a big love-heart in place of said kiss.

Yusaku twitched.

_'You should share that one when you want to, with someone who isn't going to knock you unconscious,'_ the text continues. _'You humans aren't as cautious as you should be, when you're up against someone you find pretty.'_

Yusaku bit his lip, so hard, he tasted salt.

_'I mean I know I'm hot, now, Yusaku, I'm drop-dead gorgeous, but I didn't expect you, Mr Ice Prince to suddenly melt a little because of it! Aw, I'm actually quite flattered. And it's good to know that you do have good taste in something, even if it's not your wardrobe.'_

Yusaku stabbed a finger at the screen, bringing up the keypad. He wasn't sure what good it would do but…

'Why'd you do it?' he demanded.

The answer came instantly.

'_Because you need to cut me free. And I need to leave you behind. But mostly because I love you, and everything we've been through together, has made it quite clear that that shouldn't happen. Only tragedy happens when humans and AI start thinking they can actually thrive together. And now you know; you shouldn't trust me with yourself, partner.'_

Yusaku stared down at the words. The word 'love' seemed to run up and hit in the face over and over and again like it was mocking him.

Dizzy, tired, and overwhelmed, he thrust the phone away from onto the bed, where it could tumble unbroken, over and over onto the covers. He didn't know what to make of that. No one had ever told him they'd loved him, not like that.

He sunk back down into the bed, into the imprint he'd recently left behind. He didn't know what to do. He had been stupid, but then so had Ai.

_You need to leave me behind, Ai?_ He thought, anger swelling him. _And I need to cut you free? Don't be so arrogant!_

_The only one who needs to be dragged back into line, is __**you.**_

Ai's miscalculated, Yusaku thought grimly. And now I'm going to have wreck every single simulation he's run.

He clenched his fist. Reached for his phone again. And started to type out a reply.

And unfortunately though he waited and waited the rest of the night, he didn't receive so much as a single word back.


End file.
